Paying rent with sugar and fat

Powering coral reefs: Scientists have revealed how coral-dwelling microalgae harvest nutrients from the surrounding seawater and shuttle them out to their coral hosts, sustaining a fragile ecosystem that is under threat. Coral reefs are the jungles of the oceans, home to some of the planet's most fertile fishing grounds, and hotspots of global tourism. Their survival depends on an intricate relationship with tiny coral-dwelling algae. The relationship is a fragile one, as the algae are all too easily driven away by changes in water temperature and pollution. Scientists are only now beginning to understand this symbiosis at a molecular level. Publishing in the journal mBio, researchers from EPFL, the University of Lausanne, as well as the Museum of Natural History and the Tropical Aquarium in Paris present new discoveries on how nutrients are harvested and shuttled between algae and corals. Charles Darwin was the first to describe what has since become known as the Darwinian Paradox: coral reef ecosystems flourish in water that is almost devoid of nutrients.